


Means to an End

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Escape, Fifteen Minute Fic, Gen, Jossed, Second War with Voldemort, Slytherins Being Slytherins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-10-26
Updated: 2004-10-26
Packaged: 2018-02-20 19:41:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2440562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daphne Greengrass escapes the war.  (Companion fic to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/2440499">Minor Arcana</a>.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Means to an End

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was inspired by the 10/25/04 [15minuteficlets](http://15minuteficlets.livejournal.com) word #78. It has since been rendered AU by the events of DH.
> 
> Back when I started writing [Secrets](http://archiveofourown.org/works/882572/chapters/1699723) \-- my retelling of CoS from Ginny's perspective -- we knew very little about other students in Harry's year. Our best evidence was a list Rowling showed briefly in an interview. One name on that page was Queenie Greengrass, a Slytherin. In OotP, there is a character named Daphne Greengrass who takes her practical Charms OWL at the same time as Hermione. Presumably these are meant to be the same person.
> 
> I used her as a very minor supporting character, partly to fill out the membership in Professor Sprout's evening Herbology sessions, and partly to play up the theme of Ginny's prejudice against Slytherins. Later I wrote a couple other stories about her, because Slytherins aren't a monolithic block. I kept her name as Queenie when I was revising and finishing [Secrets](http://archiveofourown.org/works/882572/chapters/1699723) in 2013, since I already had a major female Slytherin character named Daphne -- Ginny's chosen antagonist, Daphne Rumluck -- but I've changed it here for canon compliance.

Daphne Greengrass had never asked to be in a war. Granted, she wasn't overly fond of Muggle-born students; most of them were either unreasonably proud of their impoverished, ignorant heritage, or servile scum, always fawning over the purebloods for favor and position. But she didn't think blood purity was worth a war. Nasty insults, scathing editorials, and political wrangling, certainly, but not a war.

Her family, however, was passionate about the issue, and they'd maneuvered her into joining -- it was that or be disowned, tortured, and Obliviated.

She was fortunate enough to be only a minor member of the Dark Lord's army. This meant, of course, that she was flung into the front lines of battles to soak up enemy curses and give the officers clear shots, but it kept her out of the Dark Lord's eye. The foot soldiers were almost never graced with his presence, and therefore escaped most of his mad whims, paranoia, and gleeful lust for torture.

The Dark Lord was a madman. Everyone knew it, even those who refused to acknowledge that fact even in the privacy of their own minds.

Daphne made a point of never lying to herself, and she made an even more important point of survival. Madmen and wars were not conducive to an extended life expectancy. She wanted out. And what Daphne wanted, she usually got. She was, after all, a Slytherin.

Turning traitor was foolish, in her opinion, since she suspected she'd only be sent back as a spy. She had as little interest in Dumbledore and Potter's side of the war as she had in her own, and she wasn't at all certain which side would eventually win. It was safer to desert, hide, and wash her hands of the whole business.

Daphne began requesting guard duty over Muggles captured for the Dark Lord's entertainment, and Muggle-born prisoners of war. In return for better rations and occasional exercise privileges, she subtly pumped them for information on the Muggle world. It was astonishing how much people would say to the only non-hostile presence among an army who considered them, and treated them, as little more than performing animals. Daphne considered this abominably shortsighted on her superiors' part; Muggles and Muggle-born wizards were still human, after all. A few were even people she'd consider associating with in other circumstances.

She did report the few scraps of war intelligence she discovered, and she never attempted to free the prisoners. She had to keep up appearances until her plans were ready.

Finally the day arrived. The Ministry and the Order of the Phoenix attacked one of the Dark Lord's strongholds, and Daphne's squad was sent to aid the defenders. She gauged her moment, stepped into the path of a Reductor spell, and Apparated under cover of the explosion and shower of debris.

Nobody, she was certain, would bother to investigate. She had presumably died in service to the cause, which would satisfy her parents and her squad leader. To everyone else she was simply an expendable body.

After a quick series of Apparition jumps, a change of clothes, several loops through the London Underground, a haircut, and a cab ride, Daphne looked around Heathrow airport, fingering her magically forged passport and her set of one-way tickets to New Zealand. She could put up with the Muggle world if she had to, at least until the war blew over. If the Order won, there was always the Imperius defense, and if the Dark Lord succeeded, she could claim amnesia from the battle and a backfired Apparition attempt.

Desertion was dishonorable, according to both sides. Daphne didn't care. Survival was more important than something as vague as honor, and she was, after all, a Slytherin.


End file.
